Kiama Downs bank teller avoids jail

A Kiama Downs bank teller who ripped off more than $20,000 from unsuspecting pensioners' bank accounts has narrowly avoided jail.

Angela Leata Patrick was sentenced to a 12-month intensive corrections order on Monday after confessing to skimming $20,800 from five elderly customers' accounts at the Westpac Bank's Kiama branch last year.

Under the order, the mother-of-three will avoid time behind bars and instead be subject to strict supervision in the community from Corrective Services NSW.

Patrick, who pleaded guilty in April, faced sentencing for 33 counts of using a false document to obtain money between February and July, 2013. In each case the 39-year-old used a withdrawal slip to skim money from her victims' accounts, stealing up to $1000 a time, and more than $5000 in total some months.

The victims were aged between 81 and 91, and all from the Kiama area.

Albion Park Local Court heard Patrick felt shame and remorse for her crimes, particularly because she took advantage of the elderly.

Magistrate Susan McGowan ordered her to pay $14,900 compensation to the bank.

"The victims are vulnerable persons, aged pensioners," the magistrate said.

"The inference [made by Patrick] was that they wouldn't notice because they were old.